Giant airships are about to make a comeback, because of their potential to haul hundreds of tons of cargo to places which don't even have airstrips or prepared landing areas.

This is an idea that India should seriously pursue. Just look at the scale of humanitarian disasters that have occurred in India - and of course the amount of clamour they produce from the Indian masses. When there's an earthquake, flood, typhoon, tsunami, drought, plague outbreak, whatever, these usually create huge political shockwaves as a follow-on effect. With large airship transports available, Indian govt could transform the optics from looking slow and inept into looking like saviours, as giant transports are sent in carrying hundreds of tons of relief supplies and aid personnel. It would certainly be a way for India to project the much-vaunted "soft power" around its region - whether to immediate neighbors, or even farther to SouthEast Asia or Africa. Even India's Antarctic missions could benefit.

Likewise, India's own economy could benefit from roadless bulk transport which airships could provide, especially to remote regions where roads are few and poor in quality. Heavy equipment and infrastructure could be transported to remote undeveloped areas, including bringing heavy military equipment to staging areas nearer to the borders. The ability to carry a thousand tons of water could tremendously boost firefighting, saving large swathes of dry forest which might otherwise be ravaged by fire - or even help assist drought-stricken areas from losing their crops. Large-scale aerial spraying could even help help farmers combat insect pestilence.